Gates of the Mind
by Dark Fire Dragon Slayer
Summary: In a bid to save Lucy's life, Natsu has to choose whether he wants to open certain gates and go down avenues that he never should go. What will be the consequences of his choices and would he be able to survive it?


**Gates of the Mind**

"Accept my powers to save your loved one. There's no other choice you have to save her. Allow me in, and both of you can leave this place in one piece." Natsu, who was struggling to free himself from the chokehold of the latest dark guild master who had thoroughly beaten him, considered these words which seemed to be heard by him inside his head. He had managed to punch half of the floor down so that Lucy could have some time to escape. What he didn't realize was that the fall had broken Lucy's legs. The guild master seemed to not be disturbed by all the fire attacks that Natsu had shot his way. He had even tried to burn away the arms that held him in a chokehold, but it had no use. Slowly Natsu realized that there was no other way to escape this place, without accepting the demands of the voice in his head.

The voice in his head strangely sounded like his own, only that it was a little deeper and more menacing. Natsu closed his eyes and when he opened them, he found himself within a small chamber which wasn't where he was two seconds ago. There was a huge grey metal gate in front of him and water filled the chamber, which came until his knees. Beyond the gate, he could see a dark figure with a body that was pitch black in color and with red eyes that glowed menacingly. Natsu could feel the power that was contained by this figure and it was a struggle to stay standing as the power that was being emanated from the figure was making his skin creep. He couldn't breathe nor could he open his mouth. Then he was reminded about his poor Lucy, who was quietly sobbing having broken her legs because of him.

He finally opened his mouth and said" You said you could save Lucy? Who are you and why would you want to do that?" The figure laughed in a metallic tone and said" Let's just say that….your survival is important for mine and we can't have you dying before you fulfill your purpose. Just will these gates open and as soon as I cross the gates, all my powers are at your disposal for this one time." Natsu deliberated on these words and couldn't come up with a better solution to escape this place. His life didn't matter and if he died accepting this stranger's powers, it was of no consequence as long as Lucy could walk away alive from this place. He couldn't have Lucy die on him, not when he had decided that he was going to propose to her after this mission. The diamond ring in his pocket vibrated with his thoughts. He took a deep breath and willed the gates open.

The grey metal gates opened in reaction to his will. It opened with great difficulty as if it was rusted after years of non-use. The sound it gave when it opened was ominous and Natsu had a feeling of great disaster to come since he opened the gates. He didn't give a fuck though, because what he gave a fuck about was saving his girlfriend now. He shuddered when he was disturbed from his thoughts when he saw the dark figure walking towards him. Natsu's knees had turned to jelly and only his will power was keeping him still standing. Soon that also evaporated as he crumbled to his knees when the dark figure was standing two feet away from him. Natsu croaked" Who are you?"

The figure smiled and said" Who I am doesn't matter. You'll be seeing me soon though". With those words Natsu was woken up from his dream. He still felt the enemy's chokehold on him, but this time he felt immense power coursing through his body. Natsu smiled menacingly and placed his arms on the enemy, whose appearance sickened him to his core now. Natsu didn't have enough time to digest the malicious thoughts that were running through his head now. All he wanted to do now was deal with this piece of trash in front of him and get Lucy to a safer place.

Natsu looked at the guy in his eyes. The guy suddenly shivered in fear as he sensed the power that was hanging in the atmosphere around him. His nervousness could be seen by the dark guilds across the whole continent of Magnolia. He had been using a communication lacrima to broadcast to the other dark guilds, the killing of two of the most powerful and popular mages of Fairy Tail. They were supposed to declare war over Fairy Tail and destroy them by isolating the guild from the other guilds. Now he was sweating in fear when he sensed the malevolence hanging heavily around him, emanating from the salmon-haired 'weakling'.

Natsu reveled in the sight of the fear in his eyes. He tightened his hands around the evil mage and whispered enough for the mage to hear "**Incinerating Touch of the Fire Dragon**". What was supposed to be a move that he had perfected in order in to not punch his way through everything, was now being used to kill an opponent. His smile twisted in glee as he saw realization dawn on his enemy. Natsu heated up his hands like never before and his only intention was to kill the mage who had tried to kill his Lucy. He wasn't going to forgive anyone who as much as hurt a hair on Lucy's head. This guy wasn't any exception and he was going to go through hell now.

The heat in his touch kept increasing to unbearable levels and started singeing the arms of the dark mage and slowly crept up his body. He was screaming in pain and it was heard by all the mages of all the dark guilds of Magnolia. Lucy was fortunately knocked out, so she didn't have to listen to these screams of pain. Natsu shivered in joy as he was finally able to put a dent on this bastard of an opponent. Well dent was an understatement as he was putting more than a dent on him. His enemy dropped him to the ground and recoiled in fear at the hellish fiend in front of him. That's when Natsu took a look at himself in a broken mirror in front of him.

His eyes were blazing in a orange-red hue. Half of his face was covered in black skin and fangs jutted out from his mouth. His body from the face down was covered in coal-black skin. Midnight black flames drove in waves from his arms and covered his legs like a blanket. He didn't look like himself. Slowly he regained his own thoughts and thought of the abomination that greeted him in the mirror. That stared back at him from the other side of the mirror. He had read some comics of Superman and Batman when he had a lot of time to spare and was looking for some other form of entertainment apart from breaking into Lucy's home. He had always liked Superman and wanted to inspire hope in everyone who saw him during a time of duress. He liked Batman too, but he felt like his character wouldn't match that of Batman's. A guy like Laxus would suit being Batman because he unintentionally always made people scared of him despite being a big softie. Natsu couldn't accept the fact that now someone was mortally afraid of him now. He wasn't supposed to be like that.

But then Natsu steeled himself. Even the best of heroes can succumb to their rage to protect their loved ones. The Injustice comics were proof that even Superman could fall and a guy like Batman could inspire hope. It was all the choices that a person took when he was in front of a crossroad. Natsu decided to inspire fear in its truest sense to all the dark guilds that were watching this altercation. He walked towards his enemy and lifted him by his neck.

He spent a few moments looking the enemy up and down, for this was the person who had beaten him to within an inch of his life. He remembered the excruciating pain he had felt when he took all the beatings from this guy, just so he could buy Lucy some time to escape. He now knew that whatever he did now was for protecting Lucy because he didn't feel pain in this form. He tightened his hold on his enemy's neck, and increased the heat in his hands. He turned towards the lacrima, knowing that the audience would be watching him. He said" This is what you get when you cross paths with Fairy Tail. I warn you, this is what you'll fucking get!". He maxed out the heat in his hands. His enemy didn't even have the time to scream, before he was incinerated and his ashes burned off in a second.

Nothing remained behind. No ashes, no pieces of flesh, no bones. There was nothing to show that a guy called Pierce, the master of the dark guild Hel existed. Natsu turned to give the lacrima one final look. Then he burned it off.

He willed his new form to recede and go back to his standard appearance. He could deal with the repercussions of his actions later. He now had to check on Lucy and see that she hadn't suffered anything too bad. He walked towards the hole and summoned a fireball to illuminate the crevice that he had created. Lucy had fallen down two floors and had broken both her legs and was knocked out cold. Dried blood was on her head as she had bled from her temple. She was covered in soot and her arms and legs had deep cuts. Natsu could hear her breathing and that was all it took for him to lose his composure. He collapsed to the ground and started to gulp in huge amounts of air. He had willed himself to stay strong and took all the beatings for her. He had not buckled under pressure and endured everything that was thrown his way. He was ready to die for his Lucy because if he couldn't die protecting her, who else would?

He had lost all hope that he was going to be able to protect Lucy and had resigned to offer his body as a punching bag to his enemy. Anything for his Lucy. He felt around his pocket and realized that the ring he had bought was still safe, if not a little worse for the wear. Now he knew that the two of them had survived to live tomorrow. He could now propose her on another day because he could do now. This power that coursed through his blood was slowly receding and he knew that the being inside his head still existed somewhere deep in his head. He also had a bad feeling that when he opened the gates in his mind, he had unleashed something that would cause trouble for him in the future. As much as he was correct in his instinct, he could deal with it some other day now. For now he had to get Lucy home and take care of her so she could heal.

Natsu jumped into the crevice and slowly lifted his girlfriend in a bridal carry and left the building after breaking through some walls. He took the earliest train home to Magnolia and got Lucy and himself checked into a hospital. He was administered some sedatives because he refused to lie down with his injuries and kept checking on Lucy every ten minutes. The next day when he woke up and went to check on Lucy, he was berated by her for not allowing her to fight alongside him. He grinned idiotically throughout her ranting and his heart always skipped a beat when he saw his blonde rant at him with such a cute look on her face. He would do anything to keep her alive and breathing in this world, because he had come to admit that his world without his Lucy in it would be meaningless. He knew that was she also wanted and he couldn't be anymore happier.

His grin spread even more wider(if that was possible) as he heard her shriek and smile when he got down on his knees and proposed her. He wouldn't do it any other way and he knew that his life was always going to be a sunny one from now on.

A/N: Hello everyone! This is Dark Fire Dragon Slayer and this is my first ever fanfic. I've wanted to write this for the past two years but I just never got the time to sit down and write to do this. I'm a Fairy Tail fan and despite its lackluster ending, I'll always be one. There were certain things that I didn't like with what Hiro Mashima had written for FT and there are certain things that I felt that he could have done to make some of the main and characters a lot cooler. So I'll try my best to fulfill that objective of making certain characters look cooler than they were originally written. I do plan on continuing this story with other oneshots as a chain of events which happen in different intervals. This is the start of the chain of events that I have planned so stick around with me XD. Thanks for the reading and I'll be even more grateful if you could leave any review you want! Cheers and see you next time!


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